Homeless youth in San Diego deserve better

As I was walking downtown with my wife one recent Saturday night, dozens of homeless individuals lined the sidewalks with their sleeping bags. Cheri lived this life at age 15 when she ran away from home to escape her stepfather’s repeated physical violence. Cheri was further traumatized by the streets, where she was repeatedly victimized and commercially sexually exploited. “When I was homeless, I felt worthless, hopeless and I was really scared,” Cheri remembers of that time.

Cheri is one of the more than 200,000 youth ages 12 to 17 who experience homelessness each year in California. It is estimated that 2,500 of them at any given time call the streets of San Diego their home. Furthermore, over 7,500 youth each year run away from home in San Diego County. Many, like Cheri, are escaping abuse, only to be further victimized on the streets by adults.

A new study by the California Research Bureau shows that only a third of California’s 58 counties have even a single bed appropriate for these unaccompanied homeless youth. In those counties that do have services, programs are feeling the effects of the economic downturn. Though the needs of unaccompanied homeless youth are rising, the study found that 20 percent of the programs that support them have had to cut services or reduce hours. In San Diego County, there are only 85 beds targeted for homeless youth on their own.

We know that when homeless youth are able to find age-appropriate services and shelter, they usually fare well. In our program, 93 percent of youth who came to our shelter transitioned to a safe living situation. In addition, over 85 percent were enrolled in school and 87 percent demonstrated improvement in life skills critical for future success. Cheri is now 18 and successfully completed her stay in a long-term group home, graduated from high school, has a steady job and will soon be moving into one of our transitional housing units.

For young girls who are unable to find the resources and help that Cheri received, the risk of commercial sexual exploitation is growing. Many of these girls were victimized by earlier traumas, like sexual and physical abuse, and find themselves in situations on the streets where they are forced into prostitution. Over the last year, 63 teens were arrested for prostitution in San Diego, an increase of 40 percent. Despite this growing problem, there are minimal services and resources available for these girls.

It is imperative that the state and county invest in services for homeless youth. Despite the fiscal crisis in which the state finds itself, the cost of not providing these services is staggering. The average annual cost of incarcerating a youth in one of San Diego’s juvenile institutions is over $75,000. Youth like Cheri can receive shelter and comprehensive services in programs like ours at a fraction of that cost (approximately $30,000 per year). We can either invest in youth like Cheri, helping them become successful, contributing members of society, or we can pay for the high human and financial costs when they end up in emergency rooms, psychiatric wards or jail cells.

Now is the time for San Diegans, and all Californians, to declare homeless youth a priority. We must work together to stop the victimization and exploitation of youth as well as the other complex issues created from youth homelessness. There is hope for these youth emerging in Sacramento: we need to support a trio of proposed legislation to create the first-ever statewide strategy to reduce youth homelessness; to preserve over $6 million in federal funds for California’s homeless youth by creating a state licensing category for youth shelters; and to ensure that the needs of homeless youth are considered in the development of permanent, affordable housing.

Philips is the chief executive officer of San Diego Youth Services, a nonprofit organization that seeks to stabilize the lives of runaway, abused and at-risk youth in San Diego County.